Latest Triassic–Early Jurassic Stikine–Yukon-Tanana terrane collision and the onset of accretion in the Canadian Cordillera: Insights from Hazelton Group detrital zircon provenance and arc–back-arc configuration

Abstract

Abstract The Hazelton Group is a Rhaetian–Bajocian (uppermost Triassic–Middle Jurassic) volcano-sedimentary sequence that represents both the last pre-accretionary arc volcanic cycle of Stikinia and its early synaccretionary aftermath. Hazelton magmatism of central Stikinia succeeded the Late Triassic (mainly Carnian–Norian) Stuhini arc, which ceased activity as a result of end-on collision with the pericratonic Yukon-Tanana terrane. The Hazelton volcanic belt lies to the south along strike with the coeval Whitehorse trough, the synorogenic clastic basin that developed on top of the Stikinia–Yukon-Tanana collision zone. Whereas the sources of voluminous clastic sediments in the Whitehorse trough were its rapidly exhuming shoulders, the thin clastic intervals in the Hazelton Group in northwestern British Columbia were derived from local to subregional block uplifts that supplied mainly ca. 230–215 Ma zircons eroded from the plutonic roots of the Stuhini arc. Lesser components include late Paleozoic (ca. 350–330 Ma) zircons from Stikinia's basement and penecontemporaneous (ca. 205–172 Ma) zircons from Hazelton volcanic/subvolcanic sources. Reexamination of the four main volcanic fields that make up the lower Hazelton Group suggests that the main Hazelton volcanic belt formed a southward-convex magmatic arc from eastern Stikinia across the Skeena arch, including the Toodoggone and Telkwa belts, with the Spatsizi and Stewart-Iskut regions of northwestern British Columbia in its back-arc. The Whitehorse trough and Hazelton belt represent a collision zone to active arc pair. Southward advance of the arc and counterclockwise rotation of the Stikinia microplate contributed to closure against the Quesnellia arc and assembly of the inner Canadian Cordilleran terrane collage.